


Baby Steps

by starxreactor



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2019 [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Falling In Love, Fluff, Idiots in Love, Light Angst, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Parent Bucky Barnes, Parent Tony Stark, Protective Bucky Barnes, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is Good With Kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-21 01:10:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18134960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starxreactor/pseuds/starxreactor
Summary: Bucky’s been with the Avengers for a few months, so he’s kinda used to all the weird shit that happens to them, but this – this isn’t something he had ever expected.He hasn’t been cleared to go on missions yet, and to be quite honest Bucky doesn’t really want to anyway. That’s why it’s a bit of a surprise when only Stark returns from the Avengers’ most recent battle, looking frazzled and dragging a bunch of grumpy children with him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my lovely wife duckmoles for beta-ing this!
> 
> This fill is for my Tony Stark Bingo Square K5: Schmoop.

Bucky’s been with the Avengers for a few months, so he’s kinda used to all the weird shit that happens to them, but this – this isn’t something he had ever expected.

He hasn’t been cleared to go on missions yet, and to be quite honest Bucky doesn’t really want to anyway. That’s why it’s a bit of a surprise when only Stark returns from the Avengers’ most recent battle, looking frazzled and dragging a bunch of grumpy children with him.

He’s clutching a gurgling infant with red hair in his arms, and there are six tiny boys wearing clothes far too large for them surrounding his legs. When they spot Bucky, they swarm closer to Stark. It hurts a little, even though realistically Bucky knows it’s just because they don’t recognize him.

“This is your Uncle Bu – James,” Stark says brightly, trying to hide the tremor in his voice. Odd. Stark always referred to him as “Bucky” before.

The baby lets out a squeal and pats Stark’s cheek. Almost unconsciously, it seems, he smiles and presses a kiss to the baby’s fingers. “He’s really nice, I promise. He and I are going to take care of you, ‘cause your parents are busy.”

There’s a pause as the children digest that. “I hav’ta go potty,” one of the boys loudly announces.

Stark’s smile suddenly seems a bit more forced. “Okay, that’s fine. James,” he says with a false sweetness, “can you show Sam the bathroom?”

Wait. Sam? Bucky takes a closer look at the kids and freezes. Oh, God, those are the _Avengers_. There’s no doubt about that. Why are they kids? He glances at Stark in confusion.

“Later,” Stark mouths.

Bucky nods. Years of being the Winter Soldier has trained him to not react to unexpected things, as well as to adapt within seconds, and this is no difference. And, if Steve’s one of them, he supposes that explains why Stark’s calling him James instead.

He holds out his right hand for Sam to take, not wanting his metal hand to even touch the kid. The boy runs up to him, not even the slightest bit scared, and latches on. Bucky, dumbfounded, just leads him to the nearest bathroom and waits outside the door as the kid finishes his business. That was the closest he’d been to Sam without the two of them getting into some sort of argument.

When Sam comes out, Bucky asks, without even thinking, “Did you wash your hands?”

Sam wrinkles his nose. “‘Course I did!”

“Good,” Bucky says, because he doesn’t know what else to say or what led him to even ask in the first place, and takes Sam back to where he had left Stark and the others.

Stark’s not there.

“JARVIS?” Bucky asks, suddenly fearful. No one could have attacked, it’s impossible, but it doesn’t help the dread clawing up his throat. 

“Mr. Stark is at the medical bay getting the children checked out,” JARVIS answers smoothly. The lack of worry in his voice is what makes Bucky relax more than his words.

Sam jumps at the voice, looking around. “Who’s that?”

“That’s JARVIS,” Bucky explains. “He’s...kind of like a robot that lives in the ceiling.” He inwardly winces. That had to be the dumbest thing Bucky had ever said, by far.

“What?” Sam says, eyes wide. He can’t be older than four, Bucky thinks, though he’s not sure. He can’t ever remember being near a child before, though Steve claims he used to have a younger sister. “A robot? Will he hurt us?”

“No, no, he’s here to protect ya,” Bucky says, trying to aim for comforting but just sounding like he’s about to cry, voice all breathless and wobbly. That’s not right. He’s the Winter Soldier. He doesn’t cry. “He keeps us safe from bad guys.”  
  
That convinces the kid, and Bucky despairs at how naïve children are. Someone needs to teach them not to trust everything at face value.

That someone is probably gonna have to be Bucky, because Stark has no self-preservation instincts at all. He’s going to have to start teaching them self-defense in case someone goes after them, how to call for help, what to do in an emergency. Things that’ll keep them safe.

Wait, he’s getting ahead of himself. He doesn’t know how long the Avengers will last as kids, or if this is even reality and not just a drunken hallucination brought on from Thor’s special Asgardian mead.

Sam’s eyes are shining, and he looks up at the ceiling in awe. “Cool,” he breathes. “Thanks, Mr. JARVIS!”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Wilson. Sergeant Barnes, I recommend you get to the medical bay soon. Mr. Stark is starting to worry, and you know how he is.”

“Right,” Bucky says, having experienced Stark fretting over one thing or the other first hand, and scoops up Sam with his right arm in order to get there quicker.

Sam squawks, flailing a little. “Where we going?”

“Uh, to get some candy,” Bucky says, sweating. He may not remember much, but he does recall how much he hated hospitals as a child. Hell, he still hates them.

“This place is awesome!” Sam declares, falling back against Bucky, who glances nervously at him.

Stark better have some candy lying around.

* * *

“Oh, good, you’re here,” Stark says once Bucky walks into the medical wing with Sam. Stark is still holding the baby (and it has to be Natasha, no one else has red hair), and four of the boys are clutching his legs. The other one is sitting on a medical bed, swinging his legs and sucking on a lollipop. Bucky guesses that he’s Thor, considering the size of him and his golden hair.

When Sam sees Thor’s lollipop, he starts wiggling, and Bucky nearly drops him. “I want one! Tony, I want one!”

“Let the doctor look you over and you’ll get one,” Stark says offhandedly, helping Thor leap onto the ground.

Sam shoots a desperate look at Bucky, who just shrugs. “He’s the boss.”

“But you _said_!”

Stark glares at Bucky and opens his mouth.

“Alright, who’s next?” Doctor Cho interrupts, saving Bucky from what was most likely a scolding and coming over with a clipboard. “Thor, thank you for being so brave and going first.”

Thor beams as brightly as the sun.

“I’m brave!” a high-pitched voice cries. Steve – it’s definitely Steve with the way his jaw juts, even though it seems the serum has stayed with him – comes forward.

Doctor Cho chuckles. “I’m sure you are. Do you want to go next?”

It’s clear Steve doesn’t, but Stark smiles at him encouragingly and he turns back to Doctor Cho, nodding.

Most of the exam isn’t bad, consisting of Doctor Cho testing his reflexes, his eyesight, shit like that. The worst part is when Doctor Cho has to take some of his blood and Steve puts up a fight, going so far as to run out of the room. Bucky ends up having to chase him down because Stark refuses to let go of Natasha.

He doesn’t want to deal with Steve, truth be told. The first time around was bad enough. Sure, he was sweet and polite and all for the most part, but he had a strange tendency to get himself into dangerous situations and drag Bucky along for the ride, and that’s not even getting into the fact that he would fight anything that moved. Once Steve had gotten startled by a rustling bush and _punched it_.

Stark can suffer with him.

But first, he has to catch the kid – though it isn’t hard to catch up to him. Bucky’s not even running. He scoops up the kid, who lets out a shout. “Lemme go!”

“It’ll be done soon, okay?” Bucky says, attempting to comfort the child even as Steve struggles in his arm.

He does feel for the kid. After all, he’s, what, five? Four? It must be terrifying to get a shot, not to mention the fact that this has to be forced on him. Bucky knows what it feels like to be held against his will while someone he doesn’t know or trust does a series of invasive tests on him. “And then you’ll get your lollipop.”

“No! No!” Steve nearly elbows Bucky in the face.  
  
“Are you a brave boy or not? Y’have to set an example for the other kids, especially Natasha,” Bucky says, walking back into the medical room.

“‘M brave!” Steve cries, red high on his cheeks. At least he’s stopped moving.

“Then show it,” Bucky says, hefting Steve higher on his hip.

In the time it took to get Steve back Cho had examined who he’s assuming is Rhodey, judging by the lollipop in his mouth. Natasha is now in an assistant’s arms while Stark’s kneeling down, talking softly to a boy with hunched shoulders. That can’t be anyone but Bruce, so the remaining kid must be Clint. The rest of the kids are sitting down and doodling on some scrap paper with pens. Hopefully, that will keep their attention for a while.

Stark stands up and turns to Bucky. “You ready, Steve? Or are you going to run off again?”

“I’m a brave boy,” Steve says, jaw clenching in that stubborn way of his.

“I’m sure you are. Helen,” Stark prompts her. She quickly pricks his finger. Steve flinches, but Bucky rubs a hand down his back. She collects the tiny bit of blood that wells up then places a bandage with Iron Man on it. Stark nods approvingly at the choice.

“She hurt Steve,” Bruce says, voice wobbling slightly.

“No! No!” Steve says, waving his hand. “Look! S’fine!”

“Steve’s right, Bruce,” Stark says gently. “It’s just to take some tests. You like science, right?”  
  
Bruce’s eyes light up, already having forgotten why he was upset. “Yes! I, I like to look at the bugs and frogs and some - sometimes I see worms!” Wasn’t Bruce, like, four? Did four year-olds even know what science was? Sure, Bruce was a genius, but still.   
  
“It’s like that,” Stark says, lips twitching with the need to smile. “We need to look at your body to make sure it’s okay.”

God, Stark was good with kids. Wasn’t he always talking about how he’d be a horrible father?

Bruce’s eyes go wide with curiosity. “Look at m’body? How?”

“How about I show you?” Doctor Cho offers. “I can tell you what I do and then you can help me look over everyone else.”

“Yes! Yes!” Bruce attempts to climb up the hospital bed, but is too short.

Stark laughs and helps him up. “I think you have this handled, Helen. Steve, do you want to draw with the others?” He takes Steve into his own arms, and Bucky gratefully passes him over.

Once Stark has gotten Steve settled with the rest of the children, he attempts to leave the room. At Bucky’s questioning look, he explains, “I need to run and get the supplies I ordered for the kids. Try to keep them entertained if they get bored.”

Great. Bucky doesn’t want to do this, but he doesn’t want to disappoint Stark even more, so he agrees. “Okay.” He heads back to Doctor Cho, who is just finishing up with Bruce. “Why do we need t’ check them anyway?”

“We need to be prepared for any sorts of conditions the children could have. Plus, we have no idea what effects the spell – I think it was a spell, anyway, Tony didn’t say anything about it – had on them. Even if Steve can’t get sick, it’s still important we confirm that.”

“And that’s another thing. Why does he still have the serum?”

Doctor Cho shrugs. “I’m not exactly an expert on stuff like this. Here’s your lollipop, Bruce. Can you get Clint?”

Bruce nods eagerly and runs off to the rest of the kids.

“What if he can still turn into the Hulk?” Bucky asks when the thought occurs to him. If Steve has the serum, wouldn’t that mean Bruce still has his enhancements?

Doctor Cho freezes, face paling. “Uh...I didn’t think about that, but it would make sense. We’ll only know for sure once the blood results come back. Let’s just, try not to upset him until then?”

Bucky nods eagerly. He’s not sure how he’s going to handle a mini-Hulk.

“How are you holding up with this? I’m sure it came as a shock to you,” Doctor Cho says after a pause.

Bucky twists his mouth, thinking. “Stark hasn’t really explained anythin’ to me yet, so I’m just going with everything as it comes.”

She smiles in amusement. “Don’t worry, you get used to it.”

Bucky doesn’t say anything to that, just watches as Doctor Cho goes through Clint and finally Sam. The only one left is Natasha. By then, Stark’s returned, so he holds her the entire time. When she starts crying after her finger is pricked, he looks shocked and uncomfortable, but that doesn’t stop him from rocking her and cooing.

What a horrible parent, sure. He doesn’t even seem to realize how easily he’s fallen into the role of taking care of the kids.

“I’ll have the results in an hour or so,” Doctor Cho announces. “In that time, you should probably feed them.” She frowns at the group of children that are now running around chasing each other. “And maybe get some actual clothes on them.” They’re still in the large shirts Stark procured from somewhere, the necklines slipping off of their shoulders.

“Right,” Stark says, still bouncing Natasha. “That’s probably a good idea. I mean, Natasha’s only in a towel right now. It’s a miracle she hasn’t actually...used it. James, the clothes are right outside.”

Bucky takes that as his cue to get them, and once he comes back the three of them proceed to try and get six kids on a sugar high calm enough to actually put the clothes on them. Was it a bad idea to give them sugar on an empty stomach? Probably, but Bucky won’t take any credit for it. That was all Stark and Doctor Cho.

Bucky lets out a huff once he’s finally wrangled pants onto Sam, sitting back on his ass and looking around. Everyone else is already fully clothed. “God, finally. Who’s hungry?”

His question is met with a clamor of affirmative responses.

“Any ideas?” Stark asks, pulling up a screen and looking up recipes.

“Mac ‘n cheese,” Bruce says immediately.

Steve looks confused. “Wha’s that?”

Bucky doesn’t remember hearing about mac and cheese back in the twenties, if it was around then. He mostly recalls seeing Kraft after it was released in the late thirties, and Steve was a young adult then.

Several of the children look horrified. “Y’don’ know what mac and cheese is?” Rhodey cries. “Mama makes it all the time for me, it’s so good!”

“What is it?” Steve repeats. He turns to Stark. “Tony, may we...please have mac and cheese? I want t’try it!”

Stark laughs, a light and happy noise that reminds Bucky of sunshine, and he ignores the fluttering in his chest at that. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Come on, follow me.” He nods to Doctor Cho, and then leaves the medical wing with the children trailing after him like ducklings. Bucky brings up the rear and ignores the implications. He’s just helping Stark because he needs it, nothing more.

In the kitchen, Stark pulls out several boxes of Kraft mac and cheese after throwing on some new Disney movie that immediately leaves the children in enchanted silence. Natasha babbles in Bucky’s arm, playing with the actually-pretty-cute stuffed crab (they’ll make toys of anything now, apparently) Stark had given her.

Bucky’s still trying his best to avoid touching the kids with his metal arm. He’s not entirely sure if Stark’s noticed, but the man is almost as observant as Natasha, and Stark did give Bucky a disapproving glance when Bucky took Natasha – but that could just be because he’s holding the baby with one arm. With his supersoldier strength, though, it’s not really a problem.

“I hate this processed stuff.” Stark says as he fills up a large pot with water, “It’s so unhealthy, but homemade mac and cheese will probably take longer and I want to feed them as soon as possible.”

Bucky is well aware. Nearly every month Stark has new health food fad to try out, with varying results. The most enjoyable ones, he thinks, were when Stark got into something called an açaí bowl as well as pasta made of vegetables. It’s not only that, though – he insists on grazing throughout the day rather than eating three large meals, drinks those horrid smoothies and makes them for everyone else, and is horrified by all the junk food Steve consumes on a regular basis – which is _a lot_.

Privately, Bucky can’t blame Steve, considering he was forced to avoid anything but the blandest foods as a result of his health and the Depression, and he’ll admit that he has a few days where he splurges himself. But he understands Stark’s concern, too, because at the end of the day he just wants to look out for his team.

Bucky realizes Stark has been chattering on about food as he was lost in his thoughts. “...They’re not good for my heart, you know. So I can’t eat them anymore even though I liked them.”

Bucky nods, though he hadn’t actually known that. No one had told him Stark had heart problems, and it makes him a little concerned although he knows Stark can take care of himself. He decides not to say anything about it right now.

It explains a lot of Stark’s behavior, though, if he literally can’t eat unhealthy, processed foods. “What’re we feeding Natasha?” He gestures at the baby.

Stark turns to look at Natasha, making a funny face so that she laughs. “Helen said she’s about nine and a half months and has most of her teeth, so she can eat some soft things now, though she still needs milk. I guess mac and cheese could work? JARVIS, look up whether babies her age can eat mac and cheese. Hey, you want to handle the food or her milk?” He directs the question to Bucky, not even taking a second to breathe.

“Uh…” Bucky doesn’t have a lot of experience cooking, at least with the memories he has – while on the run, he tended to just eat takeout if he could scrounge up the money, steal food from others, or just not eat. But he’s sure it’ll be easier to handle than the milk, since he at least has an idea of what to do with the mac and cheese. There are directions on the box, right? “I’ll make the mac and cheese.”

Stark frowns, though he doesn’t look surprised. “Smart choice. JARVIS, what’s the verdict?”

“It seems as though it should be fine, although homemade would be preferable due to the additives in the boxed mac and cheese.”

“Okay, so we’ll avoid that for now. There are some bananas or something that she can eat.” Stark gestures at the island, where there’s a large fruit bowl in the middle.

Natasha holds the crab up to Bucky’s face, and says, “Ah.”

“Yeah, I see it,” Bucky says softly. “‘S cute and red, right? Like you.”

She bursts into a fit of laughter at that, though Bucky doubts she understood a word he said.

Stark comes closer, holding his arms out. “I’ll take Nat. Don’t want her near the stove.”

Bucky has a horrifying image of her suddenly reaching out with her arm and touching the pot with boiling water and desperately pushes the thought away. Fair enough. He hands Natasha over.

She giggles once Stark’s holding her, hitting the crab against his shoulder. “Ni,” she says.

Stark raises his eyebrows. “Ni? What’s that mean?”

Natasha just giggles again, shoving the crab in her mouth.

“Alright, sweetheart, let’s get your lunch ready.” Stark continues to coo at her as he walks away, and Bucky takes a second to laugh. If, for some inexplicable reason, Natasha remembers this when she’s an adult again, there’s no doubt she’ll kill Stark.

Bucky turns to the stove, and takes a deep breath. He can do this.

* * *

The mac and cheese was a huge hit with everyone, including Thor and Steve, who had declared it as his favorite food. Bucky couldn’t help but let that stroke his ego a little bit even though all he had really done was throw some strange, orange powder on top of the boiled pasta and mix it up.

See, he didn’t just destroy things.

Stark raises his eyebrows at Bucky as he hands Natasha another piece of banana to eat. They don’t have a high chair, so she’s sitting in his lap. “Clearly, you’re as good as Gordon Ramsay,” he says, not unkindly, when Steve compliments Bucky.

Bucky vaguely knows who that is. Some kinda celebrity chef, right? He’s about to ask but gets distracted by Rhodey trying and failing to eat his mac and cheese. Bucky takes the hand with the spoon and slowly guides it to the kid’s mouth. Stark watches him, a soft look in his eyes.

“How did this happen?” Bucky asks. At Stark’s confused look, he says, “Don’t give me that. Y’know what I’m talking about.”

Stark smiles, eyes glancing down at his lap. “I’ll tell you after they go down for a nap.”  
  
“Nap?” Steve exclaims. “Naps are for babies!”

“Yeah!” Clint says, nodding. “Don’t need no stupid nap!”

“Hey,” Stark says. “We don’t use that kind of language in this house.” Bucky can’t help it, he snorts. Stark glances at him, rolls his eyes, and focuses back on Steve and Clint. “Naps are not for babies. I take naps. Do you think I’m a baby?”  
  
They look more unsure. “But ‘m not tired,” Clint tries.   
  
“Are you sure about that?” Stark asks patiently.

Clint looks confused now. “I don’t know.”

“Try taking it, at least. Who knows,” Stark reaches over and pokes both Steve and Clint in the nose, “maybe your body is tired but your brain doesn’t realize it.”

“How?” Steve asks.

Stark tilts his head, looking thoughtful. “Sometimes, when you’re so focused on working or playing, your brain isn’t listening to your body which is telling you you need to sleep, because you’re not paying attention. So you need to make sure you listen to your body.”

It’s ironic coming from Stark, but then, he’s always been better at taking care of others than himself. Bucky wonders how Stark doesn’t see it – it’s clear now that he’d be an amazing parent, and Bucky almost regrets the fact that he never made the connection before.

Stark’s always taken care of the team, making sure they were comfortable, happy, and healthy, so it shouldn’t be surprising that translates into him taking care of the kids.  

“Now, eat up,” he tells Steve, and winks. “We have more than enough for everyone, so you don’t have to worry about running out here.”   
  
Right. Considering Steve’s age, they haven’t hit the depression yet, and won’t for a while, but since it was just Steve and his mom they struggled more than the average American.

Stark frowns, looking down. “Oh my god. I’m turning into my mom. Or Jarvis.”

“Like you weren’t already?” Bucky teases.

Stark glares at him.

They finish up the rest of lunch quickly, realize that everyone is dirty, and try to wrangle the kids into a bath. It turns out Stark doesn’t have a tub in his bathroom, but every other one does, so they just find a guest bathroom with a large bathtub that can easily accommodate Steve, Thor, _and_ Bucky when they’re all normal sized and still have space left over. Steve’s jaw drops open when he sees the bathroom. “Wow! This is as big as my house!”

Stark looks concerned. “It’s not that small, is it?”

Bucky stares at him.  
  
“I know it’s a big bathroom,” Stark clarifies, “but for a house, it’s small.”

Hmm. True. Bucky doesn’t remember the details of Steve’s apartment, but he does recall it being on the small size – and this being New York, that’s especially small. Maybe a few feet more around the perimeter?

He should know that, and yet he doesn’t. Not for the first time, Bucky loathes the fact that simple details like Steve’s house were fried out of his brain. “Never mind that. Let’s just clean up.”

Luckily, the kids are all at the age where, while they may hate baths, they’re not going to run around naked and giggling while the adults have to chase them (and Natasha is too young, though _damn_ can she crawl fast). Several of them do fuss, but Stark pulls out a few bath toys and apparently that distracts them enough that they can rinse them off. After the boys are out and drying off, Stark cleans Natasha.

Bucky helps the boys put on their Avenger-themed clothing (though there’s no Thor, that one may be too obvious for him) and, checking that they’re suitably distracted for the moment (watching another movie that JARVIS helpfully put on), heads over to where Stark is wrapping a diaper around Natasha.

“Never thought I’d see the day where you’d be changing a baby’s diaper,” he remarks.

Stark scoffs. “I didn’t either, though sometimes I’d be worried.”

Bucky ignores that. “Is it hard?”

“Not once you get the hang of it.” Natasha is babbling to the crab in her hands, gently kicking her feet. Stark smiles and grabs one of her tiny feet between his thumb and index finger. Then he picks her up and places her on top of a light pink sleeper with a gray kitten on the front. He frowns, watching her kick her feet. “This might be harder. Help?”  
  
Together, they manage to get each of Natasha’s flailing limbs into the appropriate holes and snap the sleeper shut. “There,” Stark says, picking up Natasha. “Oh, you look so adorable, just like a little kitten.” He grins and pokes the tip of her nose. “Meow.”   
  
“Mow,” she says.

Stark’s eyes light up. “Yes, meow! Say it again. Meow, meow.” He shakes his head, shoulders moving in silent laughter. “I sound like an idiot. Who knew babies could turn me into this?”

“Mow,” Natasha babbles, repeating the word over and over.

Bucky feels like he is getting diabetes just watching them. That same fluttering from before is bothering him again, and he lets out a frustrated noise without thinking. Stark blinks and looks over at him. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” Bucky says. He wonders why he’s just noticing how large Stark’s eyes are, and how the long, thick eyelashes framing them give them a soulful, doe-eyed quality.

Damn, he’s getting maudlin and poetic. Caring for these kids, as short as it’s been, is making him soft. _Stark’s_ making him soft. “Let’s just put them to bed,” he says tersely, ignoring Stark’s confused look at his tone.

It turns out that none of them want to nap in the hastily set up sleeping cots without hearing at least one story, but Stark didn’t think to buy any children’s books so Bucky gets stuck reading an electronic version of some book about giving mice cookies. He has no idea whether it’s suitable for their age level (they’re all either four or five, or the equivalent in Thor’s case) but it’s the first thing he saw so he’s going for it.

They’re conked out before the end, and Bucky lets out a sigh of relief. When he woke up this morning, he did not expect to spend the majority of his afternoon caring for his deaged teammates with Stark. Out of everyone on the team, they probably spend the least amount of time together – outside of occasional checkups for his arm – and Bucky can’t really blame Stark, seeing as how he had murdered his parents.

It’s not as though Stark is hostile to him, however. He’s perfectly pleasant – for Stark, at least. The way he’s been treating Bucky today is the way he always treats him and anyone else he likes.

They’re just...not close, not the way Bucky is with Steve or even Clint.

He’s always kind of desired to get closer, though, enough to call him Tony. To at least know Stark’s favorite color, which he figures is either red or gold, but he’d like for _Stark_ to tell him that. Maybe...this will give him a chance. Maybe this will be the push needed for their relationship to grow stronger.

With that thought in mind, Bucky smiles and heads over to where Stark is setting Natasha down in a crib that that he somehow found the time to build without Bucky noticing. He’s singing a soft Italian lullaby to her, and Bucky thinks of a flash of pale blonde hair, of blood, of choked words begging him to spare her baby. He thinks she was too far gone to realize that her baby wasn’t in the car with her.

The alternative, that she realized what her death would do to her baby, that he may not have been in the car with her but he might as well have been, was too horrible to think about.

Standing here, watching Stark interact with all these kids and being such a good babysitter, twists at Bucky’s heart knowing what he did to Stark’s own parents.

“You’re good with babies,” he says, instead of anything else. They don’t need to bring that up again. “And kids.”

Stark blinks up at him in surprise. “Am I, really? I literally had no idea what I was doing.”

“Well, they seem happy, and honestly that’s all that matters.”

Stark shrugs, turning around so that Bucky can’t see his face. “Well, I still had no clue what I was doing the entire time. I mean, I’ve never changed a diaper before. Ever. All I knew was, don’t do what my dad did.”

Bucky’s certain that if he could see Stark’s face, he would be blushing as red as a tomato due to getting caught. He grins, knocking his shoulder against Stark’s. “I’m sure that’s all there is to it.”

Stark sighs. “Babies are cute, too, I’ll admit. Let’s go talk outside. Don’t want to wake anyone up.”

Bucky nods and leads him to the common room, where they sit down on the couch. Stark leans his back against the armrest, facing Bucky and drawing his knees up to his chest. “So, how this happened.”

“I’ve been waiting _all_ day,” Bucky says, the slightest bit testily, and immediately feels guilty. Stark doesn’t say anything about his tone, though, so maybe it’s okay. “Spill.”

Stark shrugs with one shoulder. “It’s nothing huge. Enchantress and Loki teamed up, and one by one she had him turn them all into children.”

“I thought Loki didn’t like to work with others,” Bucky says. That’s what the guy always struck him as.

Stark nods his head. “Yeah, it came as a bit of a surprise. Enchantress, apparently, just wants Thor for herself and wants revenge on the rest of us for ‘stealing him away from her.’ Thor said that Loki doesn’t really care about any of that and just teamed up with her because he thought it would piss Thor off.”

“Did it? Annoy him, I mean.”  
  
“Why else would Thor say that?”

Bucky snorts.

“You know what I think, though?” Stark adds softly. “I think that Loki teamed up with her to make sure she doesn’t do anything to hurt his brother, you know. Keep an eye on the crazy witch.”

That was – kinda sweet, and not at all what Bucky had expected of Loki. Wasn’t Thor always talking about how Loki constantly tried to stab slash kill him? “What makes you think that?”

“Loki was supposed to turn me into a kid, not Thor.” Stark looks off into the distance as he goes through the memory. “I guess he was going to do that so he and Enchantress could get away with Thor, but at the last second Loki hit Thor with the spell instead of me, told me to keep him safe, and teleported him and Enchantress away.”

Bucky blinks. Maybe Loki wasn’t as irredeemable as he had assumed. He’s still not a huge fan, seeing what he had done to Clint. But clearly he still cared about Thor, as explosive as their relationship was. “So, you think that maybe the spell is only temporary?”

“It should be,” Stark says. “I’m sure Loki realizes that Thor is more vulnerable in this state, so I’m guessing it won’t last too long. I’ve still got an eye out for Loki, though. Just in case he decides to reappear any time soon.”  
  
“Oh thank God,” Bucky blurts out without thinking. When his brain catches up with his mouth, his eyes pop open as he tries to backtrack. “I – I mean, the kids are great and all, but it’s tiring, I didn’t mean it like that, I swear…” He trails off upon seeing the amused expression on Stark’s face.

Stark looks at him with something that’s uncomfortably close to sympathy. Bucky idly thinks about how the public is convinced Stark only cares about himself, could never empathize with another human being. “I fully understand, Bucky. I know this was kind of a shock to you and not what you planned on doing today. If you don’t want to help, I’m fine with that, I can manage on my own–”

“Are you crazy? There’s no way that even _you_ could manage six boys and a baby on your own. I’m helping you until this spell presumably wears off.”

Gratitude blooms in Stark’s eyes – his huge, pretty, _doll_ eyes, and Bucky tells his brain to shut up. “Thanks.”

“No problem, really.” Bucky’s not sure why he feels he has to make Stark believe that he’s not just doing this out of obligation, that he genuinely wants to help. “I, I have another question, though.”

Stark rests his chin in his hand. “Shoot.”

“They’re kids, but they don’t seem to have any memories of us, or their adult minds, which kind of suggests that they were returned to the state they were at at a certain age. But they still have their enhancements. At least, Steve does, and I’m assuming Bruce does, too. Which makes no sense.”

The corner of Stark’s lips lift up in a smirk. “Smart question, Bucky. I’ve been wondering that, too. My best guess is that their ‘adult mind,’ or their memories, are being suppressed, because it just might be too much for a kid’s brain to handle.”

Bucky almost doesn’t hear Stark’s answer, too busy preening at the praise Stark had just given him. “Mm, makes sense.” His body feels light, weightless. Even the arm – usually it’s a weight dragging the rest of him down, putting pressure on his chest so that all he can remember are the names of his victims, slashed in blood.

But sitting here, talking to Stark, taking care of these kids – there’s a sensation of freedom in his body, no weight holding him down. Bucky can’t remember the last time he felt like this. Before he ever became the Winter Soldier, probably.

“What’re you going to do now?” he asks out of curiosity. Stark generally spends his time in the workshop. This is probably the longest Bucky’s seen him outside of it.

Stark rolls his shoulders, arching his back in a catlike stretch. “I want to go down to the shop, but something tells me I’m not going to be able to. So...I don’t know.”

“It’s good of you,” Bucky mumbles. “I feel like – most people would have expected you to jus’ – throw the kids on some other person before locking yourself up until they were back to normal. You know, just – not get involved.”  
  
He wonders if that was the wrong thing to say when he gets a look at Stark’s face. That’s the thing about him. He tries to act emotionless, always, but he can never manage because of those dark, liquid eyes. That’s why he has to wear sunglasses to hide his emotions – because otherwise his weaknesses are painted right there for the whole world to see.

And that’s what’s going on right now, when Bucky catches a flash of pain and regret in them. “I…” Stark trails off for a moment, shaking his head. “You’re right. That _is_ what they would think. But – they’re my team. I’m responsible for them. What kind of teammate would I be if I just left them to the sharks?”

“Probably not a very good one,” Bucky says in an attempt at a joke. He regrets it, the guilt pulling at his chest and swallowing up whatever lightness he felt, when Stark only looks even more upset. “But that’s exactly why you _are_ a good teammate. One of the best, really.” He thinks of all the ways Stark has worked to accommodate him and his burdens, never once complaining. He’s sure Stark has done the same for the others.

He’s always taking care of everyone else around him. No wonder he’s so good at being a parent.

Stark looks up at him, eyes shining with pure gratitude. The sparkle in them enchants Bucky, highlighting the gold flecks deep within the iris. “Thanks, Bucky.” They sit in comfortable silence for a moment, before Stark clears his throat. He claps his hands, shooting up off of the couch. “Alright! Sorry for getting all – uh, emotional on you, considering you already have enough on your hands. It’s not – fair to you.”

“I don’t mind,” Bucky says, getting up as well. “It’s nice to focus on something other than my own problems for once.” There’s a moment of panic when he realizes the implication of his words, and he curses his inability to speak properly. It seems all that Brooklyn charm was electrocuted straight out of his head. “Not that I – not that I only think o’ myself, but–”

“No, I get what you mean,” Stark says with the slightest tinge of a smile on his face, almost as though he’s trying his hardest to smile but he just doesn’t have the energy inside of him.

Suddenly, Bucky can see how tired he is, and he curses himself for not noticing before. The dark circles under his eyes, the worn lines around his mouth. It’s obvious that Stark is overrun, not just because of the kids. This is deeper, more drawn out.

And he considers himself observant.

Bucky feels a pulsing in his chest, wrought with sympathy and understanding. “You should sleep,” he says kindly, much more than he ever thought himself – a monster, a murderer – capable of. “I’ll watch the kiddos when they wake up.”

Stark tilts his head, looking not unlike a confused puppy with his big, brown eyes. “What? And leave you to them? I’m not even tired.”  
  
Bucky rolls his eyes, gently grabbing Stark’s shoulders and steering him in the direction of his bedroom. “As fucking if. The bags under your eyes are deep enough to shop in. How come you’re not sleepin’?”   
  
Stark lets out a sigh, looking at Bucky with exhaustion set in his face like stone. “Is it that obvious?”

“Isn’t that what I just fuckin’ said?” Bucky shakes him, just slightly. “Go sleep, moron. You’ve been takin’ care of all o’ us for so long. It’s time someone took care of you. Besides, isn’t a lack of sleep bad for your heart or somethin’?”

“...I can’t,” Stark says slowly. His eyes are wide, imploring, and Bucky senses this is not a topic he wants to be pushing.

He can guess the reason why, though. God knows he has enough trouble sleeping himself. Bucky frowns. He gets it, but that doesn’t mean Stark can completely avoid sleep. “D’you...do you...sleep...better with someone else?”

Stark blinks at him. Bucky gets the feeling he’s never considered it. “I dunno. Pepper broke up with me right after the invasion in New York. Haven’t really – slept with anyone since.”

That was – three, four years ago. Jesus. Bucky almost can’t believe he’s saying this, but… “Would you like it if I stayed in the bed with you? Not like, to sleep, or anything, but if I just sat there…?”

Stark stares at him. Then he smirks, eyes bright. “You coming onto me, Bucky? You know, if you wanted some…’alone time–’” he wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, “–you could’ve just told me.”  
  
Bucky almost thinks he’s deflecting before he notices the joy in Stark’s eyes. He’s just having fun, then. He snorts, looking straight at Stark, and near instinctively, he drawls, “Well, doll, I’m telling ya right now, aren’t I?”

Judging by his raised eyebrows, Stark didn’t expect that, which is fair enough – Bucky has no idea where that came from either. He guesses it’s that “suaveness” he supposedly had before HYDRA came and blended his brain up.

Stark looks away, and Bucky can see his ears turning the loveliest shade of red. “Let’s just – okay, yes, you can stay while I sleep. Just – put on a movie or something if you get bored.” Then he hastily retreats into his room, and Bucky nearly bursts out laughing right then and there as he follows.

The room is – not as opulent as Bucky had expected. It’s immaculate, sure, and the bed is large, but it’s...lacking in personality – devoid of any sort of sentimental, personal objects save for a telescope looking out the window.

Not unlike his own room.

Although, he’s sure that’s largely because most of Stark’s pictures are kept in his workshop, where he spends the better part of his day – and night.

Stark’s standing there awkwardly, clearly waiting for him. “So I’ll just...get into bed, yeah?” He’s unbalanced, knocked off guard after what Bucky said.

He wonders why. Then he also wonders why he’s responding to Stark the way he is, with this warmth in his chest and the – the _flirting_. Bucky didn’t even think he was still capable of that, considering how he normally is in conversations. 

Bucky watches as Stark stiffly lies down on his side, and then he seats himself on the other side. This close, he can see his tense muscles and clenched jaw. “Y’know, you’re not gonna get to sleep any easier if you’re so stiff.”  
  
Stark turns on his back, stretching out languidly. A strip of tan skin shows where his shirt rides up, and Bucky’s eyes are drawn to it. Suddenly, he gets the urge to lick it, and he shakes his head. What the hell? “What’re you talking about?” Stark says, a smile sharp enough to cut glass on his face – not at all like the soft, delicate ones he’d had before now. “I’m perfectly fine.”   
  
“I can...I can see that,” Bucky says slowly. He thinks he’s more confused with the way Stark’s acting now than he was with the whole deaging situation. “Just go to sleep.”

Stark shrugs, closing his eyes and turning back onto his side. It isn’t long before his body goes limp and his breathing deepens. Bucky watches him, unsure of why exactly he’s smiling so fondly.

He’s not sure of how long he sat like that, just staring at Stark like a creep, but he’s only cut out of his trance when he hears the door creak open. Bucky glances over, spotting a whole gaggle of children.

“We didn’t, we didn’t know where you went,” Rhodey whispers loudly. He climbs onto the bed without asking, making himself right at home by Stark.

Bruce is more sedate, coming up to Bucky and staring up with his huge, dark eyes. “Can we – can we stay with you? Please?”

Bucky wants to argue, but really, what can he do, refuse those adorable puppy eyes and risk having them fill with tears instead? So instead, he nods, and immediately the rest of the kids climb onto the bed, which is big enough to easily handle them all and still have room left over. Bucky grunts as Clint elbows him in the stomach as he crawls over his lap.

They seem to gravitate towards Stark, possibly because he was the first one to find them after they were deaged, or maybe children just instinctively know he’s safe, trustworthy.

Still, Bucky doesn’t think they’re...completely ignoring him, he would say. It’s just that Stark has a much more welcoming aura, and that makes sense, because he’s not an irredeemable monster. Not like Bucky.

He watches as Clint curls up against Stark’s back, and Rhodey presses himself into his chest. Steve cuddles up against Bucky’s side, and he tries to ignore the warm feeling in his chest. It’s just the natural heat radiating from the kid, okay, nothing else at all.

Thor sprawls out in between Stark and Bucky, looking like a large, golden starfish. Bruce is more sedate, grabbing onto Stark’s legs and resting against them. Bucky idly wonders how he hasn’t woken up yet. He supposes he needs the sleep even more than Bucky thought.

Sam is the last one, plastering himself against Bucky’s other side, which incidentally is also his left side, and he winces. He’s tried his best to avoid having these pure, innocent children touch a symbol of death and destruction, but there’s no helping right now, lest he want to push Sam away, and even the thought of that makes his chest clench.

And now he’s stuck here, sitting on Stark’s bed while the man in question is sleeping, with a bunch of children scattered around. Bucky leans further back into the comfortable pillows. Because of the serum, he no longer feels everyday aches and pains, but there’s still a bit of relief as he allows himself to relax the slightest bit.

He’s safe here, he doesn’t need to keep himself on high alert, ready to fight at the slightest movement, to have a hair trigger reflex just to keep himself _alive_.

Bucky lowers his eyelids, just the slightest bit, but eventually he finds himself drifting off without meaning to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you to [duckmoles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/duckmoles/pseuds/duckmoles) for beta-ing this!

There’s a poke on his shoulder. Bucky shoots up, arms held up in front of him, fists clenched, ready to punch whoever dared to intrude into the tower.

Stark rears back. “Woah!” he exclaims, eyes wide and startled. “I – sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.”

Bucky stares at him, adrenaline pumping through his veins, before he forces his stiffened muscles to loosen back up, dropping his arms by his sides. His takes a deep breath, calming his rapidly beating heart. “No, you’re – you’re good, I just – I don’t do well with being woken up.”

Stark eyes him, still slightly pale. “Fair enough. I won’t – do that again.” Bruce is behind him, Bucky realizes, clinging onto Stark’s legs and looking up at Bucky with a scared expression.

He inwardly curses. Of course he scared the kid. That’s all he’s good for – striking fear into the hearts of people, and murdering parents. “Sorry, Bruce,” he tries. “I didn’t – I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Bruce’s eyes water, and Stark looks down at him. Upon seeing Bruce’s expression, he scoops him up, sends an apologetic look towards Bucky, and leaves the room.

Bucky groans and allows himself a bit of weakness, vulnerability, by flopping back onto the bed. There are five pairs of wide eyes staring at him, and he turns to look at them. “Y’didn’t get scared, did ya?”

“I thought _you_ did,” Steve says, frowning at him and narrowing his eyes. Bucky is well accustomed to Steve’s glares, but on a tiny child it just looks adorable. “You looked scared when Tony woke you up.”

Damn, Bucky didn’t realize how smart and perceptive kids could be at times. “I was,” he admits, “but it wasn’t – I wasn’t scared of _him_. It’s just – people hurt me, a long time ago, and sometimes I still remember that.”

They look unsurprised at that – Rhodey and Sam are both nodding as if they’ve known all along, and Thor looks – almost as if he’s sad.

“Tony told us when we were flying here,” Clint says, hands fidgeting. He’s patting his thigh unconsciously, and Bucky realizes that maybe he should get out of bed and actually take care of them.

That was nice of Stark, though. To warn the kids beforehand. He was just – like that, Bucky thought with a soft, warm glow in his chest. He could push and prod and poke in seemingly all the worst ways, but at the end of the day it was because he had perceived that was what that person needed.

Bucky had been lost when Steve first brought him to the tower. Everyone walked on eggshells around him, even Natasha, simply because they thought the slightest movement would snap him into Winter Soldier mode.

Hell, even Bucky thought the same thing. He hid himself in his room, rarely coming out, only eating when he knew for certain there was no one else around.

Stark, though – Stark had broken him out of that. He’d forced him into hanging out with the team, making jokes about his time as the Winter Soldier. Anyone else could have been offended, but Bucky had – needed that. He had needed to be treated like a normal person, to be acknowledged in some way other than just a murderer.

And yet, throughout all of that, Stark had been careful to keep distance between them. Not physically, he was all over Bucky the same way he was with everyone else on the team, but emotionally. He had helped Bucky out of the goodness of his heart, was nothing but nice and friendly to him, but he had never desired Bucky in any way other than a teammate. Not even as a friend.

And that hurt, slightly. Bucky had always wanted to ask why, but he could – he could understand it. He’d murdered Stark’s parents, nearly killed his friends as well. That was more than enough for a person to avoid him. Sure, he worked on his arm, but he probably only did that because he was obligated to – he was the tech person on the team. There was no one else that _could_.

Bucky shakes his head. There’s no time to think of that right now. Maybe they can grow closer because of this, maybe not. He’s accepted a lot of the shit that goes on in his life. He can accept this as well. “You guys hungry?” he asks. There’s a flash in his mind, the lightest kiss of a memory that he knows exists but can’t recall, but somehow he knows how quickly kids get hungry.

Thor nods eagerly. “I am very hungry!” he exclaims. “May we have more of that delicious, golden substance?”

Bucky stares at him blankly for a second, before realizing he means mac and cheese. Thor’s speech is much more modern as an adult, but apparently kid him still speaks like Shakespeare.

Stark’s still out talking to Bruce, presumably, and Bucky feels a flash of guilt. He knows very vague details of his childhood, but it’s enough to make him want to go back in time and beat up Brian Banner.

He herds the children outside of the bedroom and into the kitchen. He wonders if Natasha’s still sleeping, because he didn’t see her with Stark.

Bucky quickly gets the kids absorbed in another movie before they decide to run around and destroy something. Bad paren – babysitting, sure, but he doesn’t know what else to do.

He decides the kids should eat something other than processed carbs and pulls out a bunch of fruits, chopping them up in small slices easy enough for the kids to hold and eat. He spots a can of whipped cream in the fridge, and takes that out without a second thought.

Stark comes in at some point with Bruce and watches, hip leaning against the fridge, as Bucky deftly maneuvers the knife as he slices an apple. He whistles, and Bucky glances up at him. “Nice moves. I don’t think I can do that.”

“It comes with the job,” Bucky mumbles, and Stark cringes, slightly.

“I didn’t mean it like that–”

Bucky moves onto a banana, peeling it with the knife just because he can and it makes him look cool. “Nah, was just teasing you.”  
  
There’s a pause, and then Stark smirks. “Wow, Buck, you’re really learning, huh? You actually got me there.”

Bucky shrugs, smiling as he looks at Tony, still easily chopping up the fruits. “I’m not just a creepy, emotionless cyborg. I have layers, too. Don’t tell anyone that, though. It’s a secret.”

Stark looks over at the kids, who are busy watching an animated movie involving a girl traveling on the ocean. “I don’t think they care.”

Bucky sets down the knife, arranging everything on a plate. “You know what I meant.” Stark moves to stand by his side, helping to get all the fruit onto it.

“No one thinks that of you, Bucky.”

Bucky doesn’t say anything to that, piling up all the fruits and setting the plate on the table. There’s already paper plates and napkins at each spot, along with cups of juice.

Tony glances at the whipped cream can and snorts. “You’re really obsessed with that stuff, aren’t you?”

“I will neither confirm nor deny that.”  
  
“Come on,” Tony says imploringly. “I’ve caught you eating it straight from the can.”

Bucky ignores him and the flush creeping up his neck. He thought he was _alone_ when he did that. “Kids! The snacks are ready!” he shouts instead, and Tony laughs at him, even as there is what sounds like a stampede as the children run over.

“You sound so domestic already.”

Bucky huffs, pretending to be more aggrieved than he is. “You’re ruining me, Stark. This is all your fault.”

Stark laughs harder at that, knocking his hip against Bucky’s. Bucky can’t help but feel warm all over as he does that – maybe Stark _does_ like him. “Oh, I’m sure it’s all me.”

They sit comfortably as the children begin to eating, Stark leaving to pick up Natasha at one point. It’s not lost on Bucky how easily the two of them have fallen into the routine of caring for these kids, and it has not even been a day. He dares to wonder, just the slightest bit, what it would be like if he and Stark raised their own child together, and then he shakes his head. Stark doesn’t even like him, or at least, not like that. What is Bucky doing, thinking about things like that anyway? He doesn’t like Stark like that. He _doesn’t_.

It’s as Bucky and Stark are cleaning up that things go in a completely different direction.

One second, they’re chatting amiably, keeping a close eye on the kids who are absorbed in trying to get Natasha to speak and laugh. The next, a silvery, smooth voice comes from their general direction.

“Well, look at this. How’s the domestic life suiting you two?”

Bucky whips around, pulling out the knife that he always has with him. Standing there, in all his regal glory, is Loki. Bucky has to admit, he’s never personally met Loki so seeing him, with his lank, greasy, dark hair and flawless, pale face, is an experience. “What are you doing here?” he demands, coming forward so that he can pull the confused kids behind him, while Stark picks up Natasha. He frowns when Thor refuses to budge, staring at Loki with an awed expression.

Oh, right. This was exactly what they had been trying to avoid.

“Relax, Winter Soldier,” Loki says smoothly, stepping forward so he can get closer to Thor. “I am not here to harm any of these... _lovely_ children. I merely wanted to check up on my brother.”

“Yeah, like we can believe you,” Stark snaps. “I know you did this to protect him, but there’s no way I’m just taking your word for that.”

“Loki?” Thor says suddenly. “Why are you...is this another one of your practical jokes?”  
  
Loki glances over at Thor, and Bucky can’t help but stare in shock when Loki’s expression softens the slightest bit. Not enough for anyone but the most observant to notice, and that’s what convinces Bucky more than anything. If it had been obvious, he would have been faking, but this way – with only a paper thin crack in his facade – he’s being honest about it.

“I assure you, brother, this time it is not. I truly am what you see before you.” He sighs and rolls his eyes, “Unless you count the ice gian – let’s not get into that, actually. Are these people taking proper care of you?”

“They are, Loki,” Thor says, adapting to the situation much more easily than Bucky had thought. He doesn’t even question the whole ‘Loki being older’ thing, and that makes Bucky wonder just what _did_ happen in his childhood. “When will I see mother and father again?”   
  
“Soon, Thor,” Loki says, and then finally addresses the two of them. “Protect him from Amora. The spell will wear off in a few hours, but until then keep him safe.” Then, possibly to regain his lost bluster, he adds in a low tone, “I will know if you don’t.”

“Wait,” Stark says, “why can’t you just change them back right now? You’re right here and they’ll be safer as adults.”

Loki looks at him as though he’s an idiot for not knowing why. “It would be too much stress on their mind and body if I change them back before the spell completes its course,” he says slowly, pointedly, like he’s explaining to a child.

Stark rolls his eyes. “Fine, then. You can go and take your fu – freaking magic with you if you’re not even going to be useful.”

“Fine,” Loki snaps back, and disappears in a flash of green.

“Where did he go?” Thor demands, running to the spot where Loki had just been standing.

Bucky crouches by his side. “He’ll be back soon, don’t worry.” _Hopefully not_ , he thinks.

Stark approaches them, kneeling down as well despite the babbling baby in his arms. “Yeah, he’s just...busy right now.”

“Who was that man?” Rhodey asks, and they turn to face him and the rest of the kids.

Clint was making a face. “How did he do that? Is he a mugican – a macigian–”

“A magician?” Stark offers.

Clint nods. “Yeah, that.”

“He is,” Stark says, standing back up. “A really bad one at that.”

“No, Loki is very good at magic!” Thor exclaims, chasing after him. “Once he turned into a snake and stabbed me!”

Stark pauses, looking at Thor with wide, concerned eyes.

“It didn’t hurt,” Thor says, just as brightly. “Well, not that much, anyway.”

Stark sighs and shakes his head. “I’ll take your word for it. Okay, kids, it’s nearly dinner time so we’re going to have to get the table ready while I order something for dinner. Do you think you can do that?”

Immediately, there’s a chorus of, “Me! Pick me!”

Stark smiles, sharing an amused look with Bucky, brown eyes light and sparkling, before he focuses his attention back on the kids. “I need all of you to work together to do this, okay?”

“Yes, Tony!” Steve and Sam shout, running over to stand in front of him, the rest of them following. Stark laughs and kneels down, explaining what they need to do as though it’s an important, top secret mission, when really they have to just set the table with paper plates.

He catches Bucky’s eyes, and mouths, “Order pizza.”

Bucky shrugs and pulls out his phone, typing in a number at JARVIS’ command. The phone is still ringing when he hears a loud gasp, and whirls around, only to see fluorescent green tendrils of what seems like mist coiling around Stark, _choking_ him, as he collapses on his side.

His world narrows to Tony and nothing else. He should have been able to react right away, pull out a knife or gun and incapacitate the intruder, but he finds himself frozen, as though he’s been thrown into cryo again. His heart is pounding, adrenaline rushing through his veins, and yet he can’t move a muscle as he watches a woman with long, blonde hair, and in all green and black, step forward, smirking at him.

She flicks her hand, and those same magical tendrils wrap around him, constricting his arms and legs. Bucky lets out a grunt as he falls over.

“Strange. I thought you would have put up more of a fight,” she says, coming over to stand by Thor. She lays her green claws on his shoulder, squeezing it tightly. He winces, attempting to pull away from her, but her grip is too strong.

“Get–” Tony gasps for air as he attempts to force out a threat. The coils tighten around his neck, and nothing but the sound of choking escapes his mouth.

Bucky watches as the kids stand there, paralyzed, staring down at Tony and Bucky and then up at the woman – Amora. It has to be.

Bucky flexes his metal arm, slightly, hoping maybe the metal plates will catch on the tendril and tear it. He doesn’t think so, considering it’s pure magic, but he has to have hope. He can’t let a child be kidnapped right in front of him. Not when he’s trying to be better.

Little Steve rushes forward, all bluster and swagger in that tiny body of his. “Wha’d you do to them?” he shrieks, kicking at Amora’s shin. “Leggo of them!”

Amora looks down at him disdainfully for a moment, and then kicks him aside. Bucky nearly has a heart attack until he sees Steve leap right back up. _He has the serum, thank god_ , he thinks desperately, memories of frail, bony Steve getting his ass kicked bombarding him.

“We’ll be going now.” Green mist swirls around her hands, one of which is still clutching onto Thor’s shoulder. He wrenches it away just as she was seemingly ready to teleport away, and she lets out a huff. “What are you doing, Thor? Come with me.”

“No!” Thor shouts, running to the other side of the room. “Stay away from me! I am – I am a prince of Asgard! You can’t treat me like this!” Lightning crackles outside the tower, followed by booming thunder, and Natasha starts wailing. There are a few shushes coming from the gaggle of kids surrounding her protectively, all look terrified but still determinedly standing.

“You little brat–” Amora starts, hands glowing green again and reaching out towards Thor. A second later, she’s blasted away by a white-hot beam, which mercifully distracted her enough that the tendrils of magic disappear and they’re once again free. Bucky pops up, craning his neck in the direction the blast came from. There’s an Iron Man suit floating in the doorway, eyes glowing menacingly and arc reactor shining brilliantly. JARVIS must be controlling it, because Tony is still looking dazed as hell.

Clint squeals, jumping in excitement. “Iron Man!”

Bucky hurries over, helping Tony up. He staggers, falling into Bucky’s arms, and in any other time Bucky would freak out over that but right now he has to focus on getting Tony and the kids to safety. “JARVIS, get Stark and the kids out of here!”

The body in his arms stiffens, and Tony looks up, glaring at Bucky. With his watery eyes, the effect is slightly ruined. “No, I’m not leaving you.” His voice is hoarse and gravelly, not at all the like the rich tone he usually has.  
  
“Tony, we don’t have time for this,” Bucky snaps, because he’s just realized that Amora is pushing herself back up and he can’t fight when he has a very vulnerable human in his arms. JARVIS is holding Natasha, which can’t be very comfortable, but he shoves Tony in the suit’s direction.

“No!” Tony cries, and breaks into a coughing fit. “I’m not leaving you,” he forces out between coughs.

Bucky ignores him, trusting JARVIS to get everyone out of here while he fights Amora. He pulls the knife and gun he had hidden away on his body, rushing towards her and attempting to stab her.

He was fighting a magic user with a _knife_. This is not going to end well, but all he knows is that can’t let her win, because the alternative is letting her abduct Thor and doing god knows what to him.

Bucky attempts to slash her with the knife, but her body flickers, and a second later she appears five feet away from him. “Fuck,” he whispers, switching to the gun and aiming at her.

Her rosy pink lips curves up into a vicious smirk. “Do you really think you, a mere mortal, can stop me?”

“I don’t think so,” Bucky says honestly, widening his stance, “but I sure hope so.”

Her hands begin to glow green, the mist winding around her fingers like a snake. “Step aside, or I will make you. This is your last chance.”

Bucky doesn’t bother thinking about it. He knows there’s a huge chance he will die in the next few seconds, but he can’t bring himself to be upset – all he’s desired since he first snapped out of his Winter Soldier persona is to potentially make up for everything he’s done. Dying while protecting a bunch of kids and a person he cares about more than he think he’s realized is the least he can do to redeem himself.

He’s doing a good thing for once. Steve will be devastated, once the spell wears off, but Bucky hopes he’ll understand. Tony – Tony will be hurt, too, he thinks. Maybe not as much, but surely Tony likes him at least a little bit? Why else would he put up with him for so long?

Bucky has never feared death. As the Winter Soldier, it was near welcome after the torment that haunted him every waking hour, slashing his dreams with oily darkness.

So he stands his ground, lifting his chin and waiting for the final blow.

But it never comes. Just as Amora growls out a, “Fine,” and points her hand at him, another blast knocks her back. Bucky whirls around despite already knowing what he’s going to see. The suit is there, right palm raised in the classic repulsor pose.

Bucky hopes beyond hope that it’s just JARVIS and not Tony in the suit, but he – he knows that it’s baseless, that Tony decided to come out and fight anyway.

A part of him acknowledges that he’s being ridiculous, Tony’s fought harder villains in worse conditions and come out fine. It’s just – Bucky doesn’t want to see him hurt. He can’t help but feel as though it would be his fault. He _has_ to protect him, and honestly he doesn’t even know why. He’s strong, and brave, and capable, he doesn’t _need_ someone to protect him. And yet, Bucky wants to anyway. He’s just so – so vulnerable, and soft, and he has those heart problems, too. How can he not want to?

“Don’t get started, Bucky,” Tony says before Bucky can even begin to think of a response, and that’s not good, living with the Avengers has softened him, he’s become used to not being in danger and always thinking one or two steps ahead. He can’t –

“Watch out!” Tony rushes forward, pushing Bucky away just as Amora sends out a magic blast of her own, hitting the wall right behind Bucky.

Bucky stares at the scorch mark, and then at the faceplate. He can’t help but think that Tony is furious at him for something, even though objectively he knows the faceplate always looks angry. It just – looks angrier, and why is he being so pathetic right now? “Thanks,” he says.

“Don’t mention it.” His voice is short, clipped, and Bucky’s heart sinks. He must be angry, for trying to keep him safe.

Why does Bucky fuck up everything good he tries to do?

Tony doesn’t spare another glance, going straight into fighting Amora. She blocks each of his repulsors with a magic shield, the blasts glancing off and hitting various things in the room. Bucky can’t even bother getting upset about that because the tower gets destroyed every other week.

What is he doing, just watching? He should be helping, keeping Tony safe. And instead he’s – Bucky shakes his head, trying to snap himself out whatever he’s lost himself in. He has to let go off his demons right now.

Bucky readies his gun, watching for an opening. Tony is aimlessly attempting to blast Amora, while dodging whatever she’s throwing at him. When Tony moves aside, letting Bucky get a clear shot at Amora, he takes the opportunity. Bucky breathes deep, and clicks the trigger.

The bullet punches through the air straight into her chest. She lurches backwards with a gasp, eyes wide. Then she stops and stares straight at Bucky in what seems to be legitimate confusion. “Tony!” Bucky shouts, hoping he gets the message.

Tony doesn’t hesitate, hitting her in the end with a repulsor blast that sends her to the wall, knocking her unconscious. They stand there, breathing heavily, before Bucky lets out a sigh of relief, releasing the pressure on his chest he didn’t even realize was there, and sinks down on his knees.

He’s fine, he’s with Tony. He can allow himself to be vulnerable – just this once.

Heavy footsteps resound in his ears. He glances up at Tony, whose helmet has retracted into the suit. “I’m going to go get the power dampening cuffs quickly. Keep an eye on her.”

Bucky nods and pushes himself up. He checks the gun, making sure it’s loaded, and then moves over the stand right over her prone body. He hears the clinking of the suit as Tony leaves, and he lets out a sigh.

He doesn’t know what to feel right now. He’s relieved the kids and Tony are safe, upset that _Tony’s_ upset with him and that he can’t seem to do anything right even when he’s trying, and confused about why exactly Tony matters so much to him when they don’t even interact that much.

This is the most they’ve talked and hung out, more than any other time combined, so why is he getting...such a warm, fuzzy glow in his chest whenever he thinks of Tony, of taking care of these kids with him, of looking into those beautiful doll eyes?

He just – he doesn’t know what’s going on anymore.

He frowns, watching Amora carefully. He doesn’t put it past her to fake being unconscious just so she can wait for the right moment to strike. There’s a bit of blood leaking from her chest, but being Asgardian, it doesn’t seem to be enough to even kill a human, so he thinks she’s fine. Not that particularly cares if she dies, but he knows Tony will be upset.

He hears remarkably loud, metal footsteps as Tony walks back, most likely to not startle Bucky. “I’m back,” he announces cheerfully, a stark contrast from the irritated tone he’d had before.

Tony leans down by Amora and slips the cuffs onto both of her wrists. “These should keep her from performing any magic,” he says to Bucky, eyes bright and honey-colored, the way they were before – all this.

“Are you angry at me?” Bucky blurts out.

Tony blinks at him. “No? Why would I be?”

Bucky shrugs lightly. “I just – you sounded angry earlier, when you came to fight her.”  
  
Tony straightens up, gesturing for Bucky to pick up Amora’s body as he did so. “Oh, I wasn’t angry! Sorry if that’s what you thought. I mean, I was a little annoyed that you thought I couldn’t handle myself, but I just sounded like that because I was focused on the battle. It happens, sometimes.” He winks, and Bucky can’t help the flush from staining his cheeks. “Nothing personal.”

Bucky nods, glancing away and not saying anything as they head over to the Hulk Containment Room and lock her up in there.

“That should keep us safe until they all turn back,” Tony says brightly, smiling a brilliant smile at Bucky. They walk back together to the kitchen, Tony cracking a few jokes here and there. It’s...comfortable, now that Bucky knows Tony wasn’t angry with him.

Then Tony loses the playful look, biting his lip and avoiding Bucky’s eye. “I just want to know...you also called me Tony, during the battle. What was that about?”

“What? Would you prefer I called you ‘doll?’” Bucky says without thinking. He winces, because he hadn’t – the thought of Tony knowing that Bucky calls him that in his head, that’s – that’s mortifying.

Tony’s wonderful doe eyes grow wide and a red blush fills his face. “I – I – _doll_?”

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” Bucky says quickly. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way, a creepy way. It’s just – you’re so – you’re pretty. Like a doll.”  
  
“I’m pretty?” Tony repeats, an awed sparkle in his eyes. “I – you really think that?”   
  
They’ve gotten really close, Bucky realizes. Their faces are mere inches apart, and this close he can see the dark, thick lashes framing his golden-brown eyes, the faint freckles dotting his nose and cheeks. He’s _beautiful_.

Bucky musters up whatever courage he has – he’s the Winter Soldier, he’s killed countless people, this, whatever this is, is nothing to him – breathes, “You’re the prettiest damn thing I’ve ever laid eyes on, doll,” and kisses him.

The moment their lips touch, Bucky feels a swoosh in his chest, spreading warmth and happiness all throughout his body. He feels light, peaceful – the love he has for this man bubbles through the air, casting a golden glow on everything. He’s kissing the man he hadn’t realized he loved until this very moment, and his love is _reciprocated_.

His lips are soft, and so very plush, and Bucky teases them with his tongue, wanting to explore every crevice of his mouth. Bucky pulls Tony closer into his body, wrapping both arms around him tightly, as though he’s a precious treasure that will be lost the moment he lets go.

Tony gasps, surging up into the kiss and accepting Bucky’s tongue. He lets out a moan as Bucky continues plundering his mouth – which tastes of mint and coffee, light and refreshing but with a deep, rich undertone.

“What are you doing?”

They break apart at the voice, staring like deer trapped in headlights at the gaggle of children looking up at them.

“Gross!” Sam exclaims, wrinkling his nose. “Were you kissing?”

Bucky frowns, pulling Tony into his side. “Y’got a problem with that?”  
  
“Bucky,” Tony says softly, laying a hand on his arm. “He’s four.”   
  
“It’s gross when Ma and Dad kiss,” Sam says, crossing his arms with a huff. “They look _weird_ , and they make weird sounds.”

Bucky lets a chuckle at that. “You might be right. Who told you you could come out?”

“JARVIS did,” Steve chirps with a pearly white smile. “He said you stopped the bad lady and we can go see you now.”  
  
Bucky catches Tony frowning at the nearest camera, but doesn’t say anything. “Well, he’s right. Guess we should…” He pauses, realizing there’s someone important missing. “Where’s Natasha?”

The kids look at him with huge eyes.

* * *

Once they go back and get Natasha from where the kids forgot her, they gather in the kitchen. It’s getting late, and Bucky’s assuming they’ll change back overnight. He doesn’t really know what to do about that, though, if they should wear their pajamas to bed or not, and whether or not they should sleep in the same room like they had for the nap.

Probably not in the same room. Everyone would freak, if they have no memory of what happened.

And so he, along with Tony, gets each of the kid Avengers settled in their own bed despite their protests. He can only hope that they don’t decide to come into their ( _their!_ ) room before they change back.

Tony turns to him with Natasha in his arms once they get Steve into bed and ensure he’s not going to run out. “What do we do with her?”

Bucky blinks, then slowly looks over at the crib. “We can’t put her in the crib. She’ll break it.”

“And we can’t put her in a bed. She might suffocate. And definitely not _our–_ ” a lovely ruby flush spreads over his cheeks at that, at the thought of them finally sharing a bed because they’re together, and that’s still so surreal for Bucky to think, “–bed.”

Bucky can’t help but laugh. “Imagine waking up with Natasha in your bed.”  
  
Tony cracks a smile. “She would _kill_ us.” He gazes down at the baby, love reflected in his eyes. Bucky’s heart clenches, just slightly. Despite what he may say, Tony clearly enjoyed the whole thing. Maybe they could – no, it’s too early for that. They’ve barely been together for, what, an hour? That isn’t something a couple should think of for _at least_ a few more months. “Isn’t that right, sweetheart? You’re the deadliest baby there is.”

“We could put a few blankets on th’ floor,” Bucky suggests. “Maybe there’ll be less of a chance she’ll suffocate.”

Tony frowns in thought. “We...could try that. And JARVIS will keep an eye on her the entire time, so if something happens, he’ll just tell us.”  
  
Bucky claps his hands together. “Great! I’ll get the blankets and set them up. You get her ready for bed.”

They share a kiss before they separate, and Bucky has never felt so giddy, so light before. The weight on his chest is almost completely gone, and he’s addicted to this feeling of freedom, of happiness.

He gathers up some thin blankets Tony has lying around in his closet and arranges them next to the bed, making sure that it’s comfortable but not constricting. He looks up with a smile when Tony comes into the room, a new, cute sleeper on Natasha. This one is a light yellow with a picture of a sun that has a smiling face on it.

“How many of these did ya buy? We’re not even going t’ need all this stuff after tonight,” Bucky says with a laugh.

Tony looks slightly sheepish, a light blush coloring his cheeks. “I didn’t know how long it would take for the spell to wear off at first, okay? I was trying to be prepared.”

Bucky shakes his head, hair falling over his face as he laughs softly to himself. He knocks his shoulder against Tony’s gently, mindful of the fact that he could easily bowl him over. “‘S’okay, I was just teasing.”

Tony nods absently, frowning at the blankets with a critical eye. “Would it still be too weird if she woke up in the same room as us? Should we put her to sleep outside?”

“Who knows what might happen to her overnight,” Bucky says, with possibly the slightest touch of worry. He’s still not completely come down from the high of the skirmish with Amora, body still on edge, pumped up with adrenaline, and waiting for a fight. 

“True,” Tony says, laying her down on the pile of blankets. She giggles, kicking her feet up at Tony, and he smiles, eyes soft and warm. It almost seems as though it’s a private moment Bucky shouldn’t be intruding on.

“Ni,” she says again, waving her crab around wildly.

Tony sits back on his heels, tilting his head. “I still don’t know what she means by that. Is it the crab’s name?” They watch as she repeatedly sings “Ni” to herself, legs still kicking.

Realization strikes Bucky like a flash of lightning, as he’s staring at Tony while listening to Natasha in the background. “I think she’s saying _your_ name.”

Understanding blooms in Tony’s eyes, and he glances back down at Natasha, grinning widely. “Is that right? You’ve been saying my name this entire time?” He picks her back up despite himself, hugging her to his chest. “I can’t believe I never noticed. It’s just that…”

Bucky slips away into the bathroom as Tony continues talking, deciding to give them some privacy. It’s almost ridiculous how good he is with kids and babies, despite supposedly not knowing what to do. Bucky smiles as he strips, thinking to himself how nice it’d be to be like that full time. He misses the Avengers, of course, so he doesn’t mind them turning back. It’d be welcome, actually, because he doesn’t think he can stand taking care of six rowdy boys and a baby permanently.

But he still...it was nice, for the most part. He didn’t mind as much as he thought he would. It was nice to spend time with Tony, and finally realize their love for each other. It was especially nice to see the way Tony interacted with the little ones, and just – wonder, for a moment, if that was what it would be like if they had their own kids.

He can’t go that far yet, it’s too early, but it’s nice to dream, isn’t it? Let the mind wander into the clouds, the softness falling across his face as he drifts off thinking of all the what-could-bes. Seeing the stars twinkle from close up, beckoning him into the sky and teasing him of all the possibilities yet to come.

Bucky leaves the bathroom with a new dream in mind. He doesn’t care how long it will take – he’s waited seventy-plus years to find the man he loved – but he knows now all he desires is to start a family with Tony.

In the time it took for Bucky to get ready for bed, Tony had gotten Natasha to sleep, and now he’s lounging on the bed with a tablet. He glances over at Bucky who’s standing there in an undershirt and boxer briefs and he lets out a low whistle.

“I get all this eye candy to myself? Damn.”

Bucky scoots into the other side of the bed. Somehow, sleeping in the same bed as Tony is already feeling natural, like something he’s been doing for years or something he was always meant to do. “You’re not too bad yourself,” he says lowly.

Tony lets his mouth drop open in mock outrage, throwing his feet over the side and standing up. “‘Not too bad?’ I’m not too bad? Excuse you, I am a perfect specimen of a human being.”

To Bucky he is, but he doesn’t say that. “Well, then, prove it.”

Tony glares at him as he strips down to his boxer briefs, heading into the bathroom once he’s done, presumably to brush his teeth. Bucky watches him as he leaves, eyes trained on that plush, round ass.

He wants him, wants to pound that ass into the mattress so very much, but – not right now. Not when there’s a baby in the room, and not when their relationship is so new.

Bucky leans back into the pillows, closing his eyes. He hears the door open in a few minutes and the soft pad of feet, as well as the bed dipping down as Tony gets back on. When he opens his eyes, Tony’s above him on his hands and knees, face a scant inch away from his own. “Hi,” he says lightly, as though he isn’t staring deeply into Tony’s eyes, entranced by the way his eyelashes gently kiss his face like butterflies.

“Hi,” Tony says back, not waiting a moment more to close the gap between them and kiss Bucky. Bucky’s hands instinctively went to his hips, clutching them tightly. And then he moved them upwards, wanting to get a feel of that unreal ass.

They make out for several minutes, but eventually separate. Tony rests his forehead against Bucky’s, eyes closed. “We should probably go to sleep now,” he says.

Bucky flicks him in the cheek. “Surprising coming from you.”

Tony lifts his head and glares at him. He looks like a cute, ineffective kitten more than anything. “I’m tired, okay? Taking care of children is exhausting. I don’t know how parents can do it 24/7.” He rolls off of Bucky’s chest, landing on his back. “I’m going to sleep. If you keep making fun of me, you can sleep on the couch.”

Bucky doesn’t want to end up on the couch on the first day of his new relationship, so he wisely clams up and rolls over onto his side, nudging Tony so he does the same and Bucky can spoon him.

He wraps his arm around Tony tightly, nuzzling into his soft, curly hair. There is a faint aroma of peaches, and Bucky smiles to himself at the thought of Tony using a peach-scented shampoo. He loves this soft, adorable man, and even now he can’t believe what he’s done to him in just one day.

Bucky’s a hardened assassin, and yet the thought of Tony smiling that lovely, warm smile at him brings a flutter to his chest. Damn it.

And yet, he can’t bring himself to be all that upset about how Tony’s changed him.

He closes his eyes, hugging Tony tighter, and drifts off into sleep.

It’s the most restful sleep he’s had in – a while, he thinks. The only disturbance he had was when Steve decided to crawl into their bed, and Bucky, still half-asleep, let him.

It’s also the reason he opens his eyes and immediately falls out of bed in shock. Apparently, Steve had managed to squirm his way in between the two of them, and so the first sight Bucky gets in the morning is of Steve’s face drooling into his pillow instead of Tony’s lovely, glowing face like it should have been.

The two of them both startle awake, and from the other side of the bed Bucky can see Natasha peeking at them. Everyone has a wide eyed look, and it takes Bucky, despite himself, a few seconds to realize what has happened.

He groans. “Stevie, you really had t’come into our bed in the middle of the night?”

“ _Our_ bed?” Steve parrots. “Yours and who else’s? When did that even happen?”

“Steve came into the bed? When?” Tony asks. Steve whips around to stare at Tony, and his eyes get impossibly larger upon, presumably, realizing he was pressed against Tony’s bare front.

“Why am I sleeping on Tony’s bedroom floor?” Natasha says.

Bucky raises a hand to his temple, sighing. His head doesn’t hurt, hasn’t since the serum – except for, well, he’s not going to think about that right now – but he can’t help but do it instinctively. “Do you two not remember what happened yesterday?”

Steve frowns, squeezing his eyes shut. “I can...remember flashes?” He cocks his head to the side, blue eyes wide with confusion. “I was...a kid? I must be remembering wrong.”

“No, you were a kid. Both of you,” Tony says. “Well, Natasha, you were a baby. A cute one, if I might add.”

Natasha glowers at him.

“Oh,” Steve says, looking down. He doesn’t seem particularly upset or surprised at that. “So I came into your…’bed,’” he says, doing air quotes, “while I was a kid?”

“Yeah, and I was too asleep to really say anything so I just kinda let you.”

Natasha stands up, and it’s that moment Bucky realizes she’s naked. It doesn’t bother him – as the Winter Soldier he had to learn to not react to situations like that – and he’s pretty certain the entire team has seen each other naked at least once, so the others don’t appear bothered either.

Tony rolls his eyes. “Just get out of here, the two of you. You’re intruding on precious morning time with my boyfriend.”

Steve looks more shocked at that piece of news than the fact that he was, up until recently, a child. Then again, Steve’s always had the right priorities. “Your – your _boyfriend_?”

Natasha sighs and pulls him up by his arm, and, oh, he’s naked too. Bucky idly wonders if the tattered remains of his pajamas are somewhere in the bed, but he’s not about to look right now. “Just come on,” she says.

The two of them waltz right out, completely unashamed, and there is a scream from someone just as the door closes behind them.

Bucky’s not entirely sure if it’s because the two of them are naked, or because they’re naked and just left Tony’s bedroom. He shares a glance with Tony, and the two of them burst into laughter. Bucky stands up, climbing back into the bed just so he can hug Tony.

“That was...something else, wasn’t it?” Tony says once he’s able to get his giggles under control.

“What? The scream or them being naked?”

Tony spreads his arms wide as he speaks. “The whole thing! Just – them being kids and stuff. I mean, sure, a lot of weird shit happens to us, but that’s the first time we’ve been deaged. I had no idea what I was doing the entire time.”

“Sure didn’t look like it, doll,” Bucky says softly, gently nudging him. “You were a natural.”

Tony nods faintly, looking up at Bucky with those dark, liquid eyes of his. Bucky could get lost in their inky darkness all day, willingly submit himself to the shadows, all to see that warmth reflected in them.  “Thanks.”  
  
“Though,” Bucky continues, “I’m not over Steve being more surprised about us two than the fact that he spent all day yesterday as a kid.”

Tony collapses in a fit of giggles at that – or, he would have, had Bucky not been holding him upright. “Oh, yeah! I just – I love Steve,” he says, seemingly at a loss for any other words, “he’s such a dork.”

“Yeah?” Bucky says, lowering his voice to a deep rasp. “You love _him_ , huh?” He doesn’t care at all, really, he knows Tony means it in a platonic way, but it’s fun to mess with him.

Tony shivers, and his pupils dilate slightly. “I love you, too,” he whispers quickly, turning his head and nosing at Bucky’s throat. “I love you the most, actually. You’re my favorite. Don’t tell Rhodey or Pepper that.”

“I don’t believe you,” Bucky says quietly, pretending he’s upset.

Tony laughs. “I’m telling the tru – ah!” he exclaims when Bucky pushes him onto his back, climbing on top of him in a reversal of their position the night before.

He starts laughing harder once Bucky starts peppering his face with kisses, trying in vain to push him away. “No, come on, Bucky! I was telling the truth! I’ve been in love with you for months!”

Bucky stops at that, because he genuinely hadn’t known that. “For months?”  
  
Tony blinks up at him and nods. “You never realized? It was the reason I didn’t talk to you that much. I thought you wouldn’t appreciate the asshole playboy coming on to you while you’re still – recovering.”

Bucky closes his eyes, fighting back a laugh. “You’re such an idiot. I thought you didn’t want to be my friend for some reason.”

Tony pushes himself up with his elbows. “No, no! I did, I just – I wanted to wait, you know? Not push you _too_ much, because I’ve been told I do that a lot.”

“Are you serious?” Bucky cries. “I spent months agonizing over why you didn’t seem to want to talk to me and it’s because you thought you would bother me?”

Tony winces at that. “I didn’t know you liked me that much. I mean, you have no reason to like me.”

“Excuse me?” Bucky says. He presses a kiss onto Tony’s cheek, just because he can’t handle the love he has for this man. It’s overwhelming, burning up every cell in his body until all he can think about is Tony. “ _You_ have no reason to like me. And I’m not going to say why, but I think you can guess.”

Tony sighs, closing his beautiful eyes. Then he opens them again, and Bucky swears he can see the stars shine in them. “I will admit, I was really hurt about that. For a long time. But eventually I was able to separate you and what – happened. Because you weren’t in control.” He grabs Bucky’s metal hand, holding it tightly. “And why shouldn’t I like you? You’re smart, kind, so willing to do what is right and make up for everything even when it’s not your fault. Plus, you’re a lot funnier than you let on, you’re a _huge_ nerd, and you’re hot as hell.” He smirks slightly. “I can feel what you’re packing, too, and I’m not about to complain.”

Bucky is about to say something to that, probably something really stupid and sappy and not at all _him_ , when he realizes he’s lying entirely on top of Tony, and shoots up. “Sorry!” he says, worried his weight was bothering the arc reactor.

Tony rolls his eyes, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him back down. “Bucky, if you were bothering me, I would have said something.” 

“Alright, fine,” Bucky says, and lays a kiss on the tip of Tony’s nose in apology. His nose scrunches adorably, and Bucky can’t help but kiss it again. “I love you so much.”  
  
Tony’s eyes shutter close again, and he smiles, content. “Mm. I love you, too.”

 

* * *

When they enter the kitchen a few minutes later, things aren’t as chaotic as Bucky had expected. Sure, everyone looks confused and shaken, but things aren’t on fire or broken, and really, when it comes to the Avengers, one learns to have low standards.

“Oh, there are you two,” Clint says, nursing a cup of black coffee. He looks like he wants to die rather than sit there with everyone. “JARVIS was just explaining everything that happened.” Ah. That would explain his countenance. 

“Did I really have a stuffed crab?” Natasha asks.   
  
Tony nods. “It’s in the crib, I think?”   
  
She blanches, which is a remarkable thing to happen for Natasha. “The...crib?”   
  
“Well, where else were you supposed to sleep?”

“I clearly wasn’t sleeping there last night,” Natasha retorts. “I was next to your bed on the floor.”

“Are you and Bucky really boyfriends?” Steve blurts suddenly. It’s clear that has been bothering since he first woke up and and found out.

Tony smiles, leaning into Bucky, who wraps his arm around him and kisses him on the temple. “Yeah, we are,” Bucky says. “And yes, this is a new thing. A very new thing. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours.”

“Oh,” Steve says, eyes softening upon seeing the two of them together. “I’m happy for you, then. Both of you.”  
  
Sam shakes his head. He’s frowning deeply. “I just – so much is happening right now, and I can’t keep up.”

Tony laughs, taking a seat. “Basically, you guys were annoying little snots for a day and drove me insane. That’s all, really.”

Bucky swats at his arm playfully. “He’s lying. He loved every moment of it. _Especially_ Natasha being a cute, little baby.”

Natasha groans, and isn’t it lovely to see the normally unflappable spy get so flustered about something? Bucky is going to hold this over her for _months_.

“I guess you weren’t that bad,” Tony concedes, and Bucky laughs. He knows Tony won’t ever admit the truth, because that’s just how he is, but he doesn’t care. He knows the truth, he knows how much Tony enjoyed the chance to see what a good parent he would be, and really, that’s all that matters to him.

Sitting here, talking to his family and the love of his life, he’s the happiest he’s been in months. Maybe he won’t ever redeem himself, but as Tony rests his head on Bucky’s shoulder, staring up at him adoring eyes, he finds that hard to believe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Tumblr at [scaryy-noodles](https://scaryy-noodles.tumblr.com/) :)


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